LA Clippers dominate second half in 128-105 victory over the New York Knicks

LOS ANGELES — The Clippers used a 10-0 run at the start of the third quarter to propel themselves to a 128-105 victory over the New York Knicks Friday night. A three-point halftime deficit soon turned into a dominating victory, seemingly a tale of two halves considering the lack of defense in the first two quarters.

“We just played defense,” Doc Rivers said about the Clippers’ second-half success. “In the first half you could see, it’s just felt like we’re going to try to outscore them, just going back and forth. It felt like an all-star game in the first-half, there was just no defense. In the second-half, I thought we played really hard defensively, and the great part about our team is that when we get stops, then we start running, and when we start running it puts a lot of pressure on.”

The 23-point win tied the largest margin of victory for the Clippers in franchise history. The Clippers now are 8-3 over their last 11 games, still fighting to sneak into the playoffs.

DeAndre Jordan led the way for the L.A. with 19 points and 20 rebounds, his ninth 20-plus rebound game of the season. His 14 first-quarter points tied a career high for most points scored in a single quarter.

Lou Williams — one of four Clippers with at least 19 points — scored 21 off the bench. He has now scored 20-plus points in 26 of his last 29 games.

Austin Rivers hit five three-pointers, four of them in the third quarter, and and finished with 19 on the night. Montrezl Harrell was an impressive 8-for-9 from the field for 19 points in just 16 minutes of action.

Tobias Harris added 15 points. He had a season-high six assists Friday night.

“I think we understand the moment right now,” Austin Rivers said about the third quarter. “We can’t drop any games like this. The must-wins, you’ve got to win, and give respect to New York, they played hard, but these are games we’ve got to take if we’re going to make this playoff push. So, I think we really just understood at halftime, like guys, this can’t happen, we’ve got to get this one.”

Rohit Ghosh

LA Clippers beat writer

Rohit is an L.A.-based sports journalist who contributes to SB Nation's Silver Screen and Roll, AccuScore, and the Taxi Squad Show based out of Utah. He also runs his own sports blog, Metta Chronicles. Follow him on Twitter @RohitGhosh where he discusses AccuScore projection data, a variety of sports-related topics, and even some Jazz music.